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That page with the dog is devastating.

[Grey Star Book 2: The Forbidden City]

Nightshift is cool! Glad you're enjoying it and would love a review!
And as you asked, sir:

Grey Star Book 2: The Forbidden City

Richard's great writeup covers book 1 where Grey Star finally discovers the lost tribe of the Kundi who know the location of the Shadow Gate, an evil portal beyond which lies the Moonstone, a magic macguffin that will enable the defeat of the Wytch-King Shasarak. Standard fantasy setup there! This book starts with Grey Star solving the Kundi riddle and the Kundi agreeing to help him. They're down to smash Shasarak, but the problem is that the Shadow Gate is a portal that moves about (a bit like the fortress in Krull) and it will next appear in the dead lands of Desolation Valley. I've got two weeks to reach this charming spot.
The Kundi are full of noble-savage stereotype and volunteer their shaman, Urik, to accompany me. He's a mix of native American / old nutter type characters who is prone to speaking wisdom is broken diction and cackling at odd times, but he does actually chat a fair bit during the adventure, and you get quite attached to the old chap. Anyway, there is no time to waste so we set off out into the rainforest whilst he tells me how daft I am for carrying provisions.

(I should note that having played book 1 already I have a big willpower boost, and also an extra magic power. I chose Sorcery, as it seems to be one you're constantly prompted about, and one I avoided in book 1 as its supposed to be willpower-draining but now I have tons of that)

Eventually we get out of the forest and Urik uses some cool Kundi technique to call a giant bird which starts flying us, by means of some harnesses he makes out of vines, across the impassable terrain below and to its nesting grounds in a swamp. En route we get shot at by some soldiers, but I use my new Sorcerous powers to shield us against the arrows. Our completely conspicuous means of travel means the Shadakine are now hunting us through the waterways of the swamp however, so we keep low and quiet through the undergrowth as we try to avoid their patrols.
Sneaking through the swamp we hear an animal in pain and move to investigate. The creature is a young Chaksu, a sort of giant lizard much prized for its tough hide and also slightly telepathic (which makes hunting it for its hide pretty messed up). Urik immediately moves to tend its wounds, but by now the Shadakine have arrived. We choose to take a stand rather than flee and abandon the Chaksu and Urik unleashes some razor-edged boomerangs as we take on the search party. Which the first bunch defeated the second wave, wary of our attacks, send in their deadly giant hounds. These fights are surprisingly nasty for the first ones in a book and the first time I tried this I was killed by the dogs due to some unlucky rolls. Second time around I won through, battered and bleeding, only to find a third wave now surrounding us. Things look totally banjaxed and the Shadakine are having a gloat when suddenly a pair of adult Chaksu burst into the clearing and smash them all up. Saved! The giant Chaksu give me some wooden pipes and say they will come help me when called and Urik is impressed.

After a breakfast of delicious scavenged fungus (Urik again) we have a choice of two routes through the swamp: one slow and safe, one direct and perilous. I take a chance here and go for the slow route - I'm pretty beat up, and I imagine the Shadakine will be on the direct route (and there's quicksand and stuff, apparently). This takes us a couple of days, but between my alchemy skills and Urik's bushcraft we avoid any perils and emerge near the city of Karnali. On the road here a long line of enslaved people are trudging along under Shadakine whips. We're observing when out of the foliage a bunch of guys charge out and attack the Shadakine and Urik just goes for it and rushes in too. The Shadakine move to place the slaves between them and the attackers, using them as shields, but I can see that their chains are all linked together if I can break the end of the link they'll be free and the bad guys exposed. The key link is protected by the slave master and as I approach him he uses his magic mind-control gem to bring up a gigantic slave with a huge sword to protect him. Thinking quickly I channel my sorcerous powers to block the mind-gems control and the big guy turns and kills the slavemaster, enabling me to break the chains, free the other slaves, and bring about the Shadakine's defeat. I also pinch the mind gem!
With the slaves free the leader of the rebels, a dude called Sado the Long Knife whose name makes him sound incredibly dodgy, asks me to help attack Karnali as otherwise the Shadakine there will come out and exact terrible revenge for his raid. Urik is well up for this so I am too! Sado's got tunnels under Karnali and that's where we go. He says the city is under the control of a guy called Kiro, a war-ward whose garrison has the city under its heel and any disobedience sees cruel retribution against the citizens. He reckons I could swing the battle in their favour. Whilst we're talking some guy tries to pick my pocket! Sado apologises and explains his army is made up mainly of convicted criminals and other ne'er do-wells but he's confident we can strike a blow here with my aid.

I think Sado is hoping I'll blast the garrison with my magic, but I have a better idea: I take the Chaksu pipes and give them a play at the swamp edge. Sure enough a load of Chaksu come out, and I direct them to attack the gates. The gates are duly subjected to giant lizard attack, and whilst the main garrison is so occupied, Sado, Urik and I lead their troops up through the tunnels in a guerilla warfare strike against Kiro's base of operations. On arrival it's quickly evident that the Shadakine are boosted by magic: their ragged lines begin to form up with autonotom-like efficiency and I detect the power  a Shadakine wytch. Using my sorcerous powers I'm able to pinpoint the witchcraft and through the astral plane I can see the wytch hunched over a Kazim stone, no less, as used by the villains of book 1 - the wytch straining to use the power of the stone over so many minds below. There is another in the room: Kiro himself, looking nervous in the presence of foul sorcery. I've a couple of options here but decide to use my own powers to amplify the mind stone and mess things up. The wytch looks a bit powerful for me so I go after Kiro. His mind is weak and I fill his brain with murderous urgings, causing him to strangle the wytch before she can react. With their magical backup gone the Shadakine quickly capitulate and the garrison falls to Sado.

With the occupiers dead or banged up, Karnali is in full on party mode. I tell Sado of my plan to head into the Deadlands and he is horrified but offers me his good wishes and some gear to take along. Urik is a bit contemptuous of our efforts: he says the Shadakine will simple come and take this city back, which only makes our mission more important, I suppose. We leave the city the next morning, and soon have a new friend in tow - the giant slave I freed with the mind-stone back on the road. His name is Samu and like Urik he's a bit stereotypical, being a big noble tribal warrior dude, but he's also awesome. He tells me how his people got crushed and enslaved by the Shadakine and now he is out for blood - and the best way to achieve this is to help me on my quest.

Second part to follow as Urik, Samu and I brave Desolation Valley and the titular Forbidden City. It's all been plain sailing so far - only one death, and no mistakes or errors that I can see.  But already my flagrant use of magic is starting to put a dent in my willpower....

Getting a 403 error when I attempt to post on some threads. Anyone else?

EDIT: this worked, obviously.

Yeah, Nemesis is a nasty bit of work. It's been a while since I read it, but I think the realisation he wasn't a good guy started to creep in around Vengeance of Thoth, blowing up school kids and that. It takes some time but I think Purity starts to emerge as the hero of the book after that?

[Indigo Prime]

This Prog was a bit of a shock to the system on a lazy Saturday morning and a great discussion of it from Tjm so not a lot to add.

Indigo Prime - pretty bonkers episode really. Definitely does feel disjointed and surreal in a good way. One thing I really like about it is how Depp is an actor in the strip and his films are films, but Christian-Bale Bateman isn't and he is a real person. Fits the nature of the strip perfectly. Weird GnR cameo too.

Full Tilt - really good. An episode that sets up new questions rather than delivering really. I feel like this strip is really growing and opening up into something really interesting.

Deadworld - better than last week, although I find it absolutely maddening how this strip jumps from one perspective to another so much.

Thistlebone - crossed a bit of a line for me this week tbh, I get it but not an image I wanted in my Prog. Weird how I can enjoy strips about guys being eaten by giant ants or killed in all sorts of nasty ways but this was a bit sickening.
Other than that, as perfect / horrible as ever.

Dredd... yeah, let's talk about this in a bit. Shocker. Magnificent. Brutal.

I used to think Deadlock was cool, but now it seems clear he's a massive bellend.

Dante is of course ripe for this topic of conversation! It's been interesting listening to this being discussed on Simon & Edie's podcast. I know his character growth is a big part of the story but some of his early stuff that was meant to be cool is very cringey.

Can't agree more on Deadworld. Some sterling work was done in making these guys horrific again in the early days of this strip but Death is in full on Skeletor mode by this episode, being driven away by a henchman shaking his fist. "I'll get you next time, Eastwood!"

Let us not forget he was reduced to this state when he got outfoxed and replaced as top dog by a goofy tech nerd.

It feels like we've moved from Hellraiser to Hellraiser 3.

Is 'See You in the Throne Room' that Alan Moore + John Stokes (I think) Vader playing chess with a squid story? That was great.

I remember that one!
'See you in the Throne Room' is a Luke story where he helps some dude lead an overthrow of a tyrant only for the rebel leader to get assassinated and the Empire to immediately take over. The title is the last thing the guy says to Luke before his murder and he has to figure out who did it.
I was very impressed with it when i first read it: it's quite grim in places, with the female lead cut down by laser fire randomly and Luke having to stop her body being looted by a panicked mob. I also remember the gigantic evil tyrant crushing some guy and moaning about getting blood on his boots - a visceral scene for a Star Wars comic that isn't as good on the page as my youthful mind pictured it!

That story with the Alderaanian Stormtrooper is fantastic though.

I've just finished book 2 - I had a paperback copy of that and a quiet day at work, and it's quite a short book so went for that over a FF book and flew through it.
There's a couple of very difficult fights at the start, but after that reasonably straightforward if you don't do anything daft, although the steady drip of willpower is alarming as you get near the end as there's very little in place to recover it. If you've played book 1 you get +10 willpower which helps, if you didn't have this I'm not sure the book would be winnable.

It's much in the same nature of the first with some pretty interesting encounters and three travelling companions this time - a bit stereotyped but still feel fleshed out with dialogue and actually useful. And a good revelation at the end about someone from book 1.
Books 3 & 4 look expensive but I can play them online, so I'll probably do those next. I did take notes so if I get a chance I'll write this one up.

That Rifts advert takes me back!

Those Prog pages though.... uuurgh. That period when the Prog was trying to be all cool was bogus, especially the music pages. As a teenager heavily into music of a very different type, and resculpting my identity (as it was then) through the culture of that style of music, this really underlined that the comic was no longer for me.

That you mate! That was indeed the inspiration!

Good to have some Phoenix focus, and Neill Cameron is the coolest. Of likely interest to nobody but because I don't think I've ever shared it, here's the tattoo design I commissioned him to do for my wedding:

Would read this! Nice one Sharky.

Like Colin I read these as a kid, and later picked up some of the Dark Horse trades. There was a period where the last few books were pretty costly, but when that changed I was able to complete my collection last year and then re-read the whole lot.
To quote myself:

Some of it is really good, some of it is pretty dark, and some of it is really boring. Jo Duffy's stuff in particular gets really enaging although I felt towards the end it's starting to collapse under the weight of too many Zeltrons and dark elves. I loved the almost all the Tay Vanis stuff, Lando's Drebble character, See You in the Throne Room, the story with the Stormtrooper from Alderaan - and of course the Han Solo magnificent seven pastiche.
The worst story: possibly the one where Luke has to join a jousting tournament on lizardman world although the John Carter reskin was abysmal.

On the whole I'm a big fan of these books. I'm not sure if anyone without the nostalgia factor could come into them and have the same level of affection, although when they're good they're sooo good - I'm not a fan of modern / extended universe SW either, but I know a bunch of characters and stuff have crossed over into the 'canon' universe because they're such great ideas.
Awesome choice Colin and a great writeup!

I've finished A Green Bough by the mighty John Ware and hugely enjoyed it. I'm already into the third (and final?) book of the trilogy.
Having described the book to my wife as 'a bit of a mix of Charleys War and Jerome K Jerome' I was delighted to find both the number 9 pill and housemaids knee referenced in a single paragraph. (I know the number 9 was a real thing and not invented for CW, but that's where I always associate it)

On the comics front I've been catching up on Barbaric via the trades, and working my way through a bunch of stuff from Cinebooks. Long John Silver is the pick of the bunch: it's fantastic. Alderbaran is great stuff. Less into Blake and Mortimer so far, which reads very awkwardly despite looking lush, plus I picked a book at random with a lot of wildlife murder. Mixed feelings on Red Baron: again it looks glorious, but its glacial pace and unpleasant protagonist make it a bit unengaging.